TV News and Reviews

“You told me your name was Ed Ross.”

“I said: ‘Errros…‘”

So goes Cupid, the new romantic comedy series starring Bobby Cannavale as a man who claims to be the real Cupid, god of love. Sarah Paulson plays his psychologist Dr. Claire McCrae, a practical woman who believes “Trevor” (the name Cupid goes by) to be a damaged man who’s hiding his pain inside of an elaborate delusion.

The basic arc of the series is that Cupid Trevor must help 100 couples find true love, and then he can return to Mt. Olympus. Faking “sanity” to get out of the psych ward, Trevor sets out right away on his goal in getting people together through whatever trickery, gentle manipulation, and grand gestures he can manage. Dr. Claire is charged with keeping him out of trouble and continuing his treatment outside of the hospital. She brings him to her singles workshop, where she does her best to steer attendees away from overblown notions of romance and love at first sight. This of course horrifies Cupid, a man who claims to have brought people together simply by shooting them with an arrow.

I must confess, I tuned in to the show because I adore Bobby Cannavale, a versatile actor who turns up on TV regularly in shows like Sex and the City, Law & Order (all three series), Will & Grace, Lipstick Jungle, and Cold Case, and Sarah Paulson, who sparred so lovingly with Matthew Perry in the wonderful Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Paulson once again does well with the yin/yang relationship with Cannavale, and the two have a good onscreen rapport.

I wasn’t sure at all how the premise itself was going to play out, but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot didn’t go exactly as expected, and I was happy that they didn’t make Dr. Claire the fool in all of this. It turns out that Cupid’s ideas of love don’t play well in the jaded and modern New York City, and he needs Claire’s help to fix some of his grand plan failures. The show has a light touch over all, but it’s also got a nice dash of real life drama to it–of people’s faded hopes and dreams and fears of getting hurt again.

The dialogue is clever, and there’s plenty of sarcasm to balance out any romantic cheesiness–cheesiness that all lovers of romantic comedy are fond of, mind you. What it all boils down to is that Cupid is entertaining, sweet, and a heck of a lot of fun. My biggest concern is that it’s on ABC, the network heartbreaker this year that dashed the hopes of millions of viewers with its cancellation of four quality shows.

If Cupid can keep up the good-natured laughs and sweet romance, ABC should have a winner. What’s good for longevity is that you have a few recurring characters that have a plot of their own, and then every week we get introduced to new and interesting characters for them to interact with. This is a formula that’s kept procedurals like Law & Order and Cold Case running for many seasons, and it’s a formula that can work well for other genres.

Tune in to Cupid on ABC Tuesday nights at 10/9c.

PHOTOS:  Bobby Cannavale as Cupid and Sarah Paulson as Claire in Cupid, c2009 ABC Studios.